:c029: I bow to you sir. I believe you when you say its easier than I probably think, but I still bow to you none the less. That is some very nice looking joinery.
Thanks, but it's not as good as the picture may indicate. The shoulder cuts aren't true. I used a plain old back saw,but I did make another recently with a chisel for the shoulder cuts and through its much more time consuming they turn out very crisp.
It's something like this (just scrap) bevel side down and just make short cuts up to the knife wall to the depth you want then turn it length wise and split it with the same chisel. The mortise is simple. Just cut from both sides and your cuts meet somewhere in the center of the board so you don't get tear out.. Don't try to cut it all from one side or you'll ruin the wood. An inexpensive marking gauge is pretty much mandatory, but I suppose you could do that with a knife and steel rule, but the marking gauge it much more accurate. I like this round gauge, but you can grab a square one at harbor freight for just a few bucks..
Man, I really need to get a cabinet makers vise. The vise I've been using is a cheapo Pony bench vise .I cut the wood faces to replace the steel faces and it works for the most part, but definitely has limitations.
Sometime soon I'm going to build a laminated bench. I'm probably going to use the design from the Paul Sellers videos.
https://youtu.be/ru2ZiNs_Wek I don't know that I'll go quite as extreme as Paul, but the basic principles are there..He makes everything look a whole lot easier than it is at first, but practice practice practice..
